Brendan Fraser says he hopes that his controversial comeback position will “change” the best way society perceives and treats fats individuals amid mounting criticism.
Fraser will star in Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming movie “The Whale,” which is able to hit theaters in December. Fraser performs Charlie, a 600-pound homosexual man who’s attempting to reconnect along with his estranged daughter whereas grieving the lack of a lover.
Fraser additionally wears a fats go well with within the film — a observe that Hollywood has traditionally used to stigmatize individuals with bigger our bodies.
The act — together with its connotations that being fats is a joke, disgusting or a private failing — has additionally made it tougher for plus-sized actors to get roles.
“I’m not a small man,” Fraser informed Newsweek when he was requested about criticism surrounding his fats go well with on the BFI London Movie Competition this week. “And I don’t know what the metric is to qualify to play the position. I solely know that I needed to give as trustworthy a efficiency as I can.”
Fraser additionally expressed to Newsweek that he hopes his flip as Charlie will assist shatter stereotypes.
“I’m hopeful that we will change some hearts and minds no less than when it comes to how we expect and really feel about those that reside with weight problems,” he mentioned.
“So typically, these individuals are dismissed in our society, or the item of scorn and derision, and it’s unfair to them. I consider that shaming individuals for that purpose is nearly the final area of prejudice that we overlook, and I believe we will do higher to vary that. So I hope that this movie may change some hearts and minds.”
Though critics who’ve seen the movie agree that Fraser’s efficiency in “The Whale” is the spotlight of the film, others have expressed concern over how director Aronofsky portrays fats individuals.
This has resulted in lots of expressing conflicting emotions about “The Whale” being billed as Fraser’s massive comeback position.
Sarah Marrs of Lainey Gossip mentioned in her overview of “The Whale” that though “Fraser makes his efficiency not about Charlie’s physique however about Charlie’s regrets,” Aronofsky appears to view the character in a different way.
Marrs wrote that Aronofsky is “cinematically occupied with the bounds and grotesqueries of the human physique, [and] DOES make the movie about Charlie’s physique.” Marrs famous that the film’s rating “swells” each time it’s targeted on Charlie’s physicality, and that the sounds of the character consuming are amplified “rendering a organic necessity disgusting in context of a fats individual doing it.”
Marrs wrote that Aronofsky makes “a spectacle of the massive man binging, which in flip degrades Charlie and provides the viewers permission to, say, snort at a scene wherein Charlie can’t bend sufficient to succeed in one thing he’s dropped.”
“The viewers’s laughter and sometimes audible revulsion are outcomes of Aronofsky’s selections, which don’t lengthen compassion to a person caught in an emotional maelstrom however turns weight problems right into a sideshow,” she continued.
Katie Rife, a movie critic who reviewed “The Whale” for Polygon, slammed the movies’ fatphobic messaging on Twitter after watching it on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition in September.
Rife additionally warned in her spoiler-heavy Twitter thread that individuals who have skilled disordered consuming might discover “it extremely triggering.”
In the meantime, Aronofsky informed Newsweek that lots of the destructive chatter across the movie are from those who “haven’t seen the movie.”
“So I welcome everybody to see the movie as a result of the movie is about bringing empathy to characters that you simply don’t count on to really feel for,” he mentioned.
With regard to Fraser sporting a fats go well with, Aronofsky informed the outlet that it was a necessity.
“There’s no approach you may solid somebody to play this job, so we had to make use of make-up to get there,” he mentioned.